posted at 4:41 pm on July 16, 2013 by Allahpundit

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio raised $3 million in the second quarter of 2013, a source familiar with a new Federal Election Commission finance report told Fox News.

The second quarter total is 31 percent more than the amount Rubio raised in the first quarter and brings his total for the first half of 2013 to $5.28 million.

That represents a strong showing for Rubio’s joint fundraising committee, the Rubio Victory Committee, which raises money for Rubio’s Reclaim America PAC and his re-election committee.

How much of that 31-percent increase is due to new grassroots donors kicking in cash to encourage him on immigration reform and how much of it is big-money establishment Republicans showering him with dough to say thanks? (In the first quarter, when his immigration initiative was revving up, he had 15,000 new donors.) The Hill reported last month that Rubio had “assembled a team of heavyweight Washington insiders,” stocked with “well-connected lobbyists and fundraisers,” to help him raise money. Beltway GOPers are no doubt grateful to him for helping with their signature outreach effort to Latino voters and business interests are grateful for helping with the eternal effort to lower labor costs. The second-quarter PAC report isn’t out yet so we don’t know the breakdown of his latest donors yet. But, for what it’s worth, sources in Rubio’s camp tell Jen Rubin that most of them are grassroots, not insiders:

A source familiar with the finance report tells Right Turn that the majority of the donations to the Rubio Victory Committee in the last quarter were small-dollar donations (less than $200) from grassroots contributors. The new reports, the sources says, will also show Rubio with $3 million of cash on hand in his political committees, including $980,000 in the Reclaim America PAC and $1.97 million in his Senate reelection committee.

In other words, he has the ability to raise big money, and his role in immigration reform if anything has enhanced his profile. In fact, there are gobs of GOP donors ranging from business leaders to experienced campaign officials to evangelicals (some, but not all) who favor immigration reform and think it is essential for the party’s image.

A consultant friend tells me that 62 percent of the money contributed to Rubio’s PAC in the first quarter came from small donors versus 37 percent that came from large, so it’s nothing new for Rubio to be doing well with grassroots Republicans even in the midst of an immigration initiative. There are, to be sure, many pro-reform righties and he is, after all, the face of GOP immigration efforts. Not surprising that they might want to show solidarity with him, especially since he’s been taking a beating from conservative media lately. On the flip side, there’s probably some chunk of low-information Republican donors who are only dimly aware of his role in immigration reform and the details of the Gang of Eight bill and are sending him dough because they like him personally and think he’s darned solid on TV. In fact,, not only is Rubio keeping a low profile on immigration this month but one of his latest fundraising pitches conspicuously fails to mention immigration at all. Direct quote:

“Now, with the full weight of the liberal Washington elite’s attack machine firmly fixed on me in a frantic attempt to diminish my effectiveness… I’m reaching out to ask you to lend me a hand today,” says the letter, which is signed “Proud to Stand, Marco Rubio.”

There are, almost certainly, Republicans out there who really believe that the liberal elite are attacking Rubio daily instead of slobbering all over him for helping to push amnesty. But look: Most people who care enough about politics to shell out money for a candidate probably have some basic sense of where he is on prominent issues. It’s only logical to expect that Rubio’s prominence on such a hot-button subject will spark passionate polarized reactions on both ends. Some people who liked him just fine six months ago have written him off forever now over immigration; other people who liked him just fine six months ago have embraced him for showing balls in defying conservative orthodoxy and going all-in on an issue that’s politically perilous. Go figure that they’re going to donate. The question is, are there more of the former or of the latter? And if there are more of the former, are there so many of them that he’s in trouble now for 2016 notwithstanding his fundraising boost? I’m skeptical but we’ll see.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

I wish I could ask for the $25 dollar donation I gave months ago to get a a Rubio water bottle. Since I can’t get a refund I smashed the hell out of said bottle with a hammer & posted the pic on social media.

Called the before & after support of Rubio. He sold out & will never get my vote, nor money again.

But, for what it’s worth, sources in Rubio’s camp tell Jen Rubin that most of them are grassroots, not insiders

Sure. I would take anything coming from Rubio’s camp or Jen Rubin with a bucket of salt. I have no doubt he’ll have little trouble raising money should he decide to run in 2016. But as Romney showed, all the campaign cash in the world doesn’t mean squat if your base doesn’t trust you. Unless Rubio’s the beneficiary of very weak competition like McCain and Romney were in 2008 and 2012 respectively, he’s gonna have a hard time spinning away his amnesty push during those GOP primary debates.

How much of it is from Dems just praying he’s the nominee in 2016? The party of stupid keeps putting forth Dem Light RINOs. 2016 needs to be the year of the conservative. Ted Cruz is my guy. What do they have to lose? We’ve had McLame and Romney. No more RINOs

Terry, he lied through his teeth. He won’t be trusteed again by people in the know who supported him when he said he was opposed to amnesty.. LIVs may still pull the lever for him, but he won’t get all the Hispanics he is hoping for, with his switch to amnesty, or those who believed his campaign promises. He can’t get his credibility back. His glibness won’t do that for him now.

And if there are more of the former, are there so many of them that he’s in trouble now for 2016 notwithstanding his fundraising boost? I’m skeptical but we’ll see.

Define “in trouble,” AP. I’ve always thought that Rubio or Jeb Bush would have the 2016 nomination comfortably in the bag. The 2012 campaign showed us how the party leadership is going to make sure no upstarts are able to challenge the anointed nominee.

The question is does nominee Rubio beat Hillary? Doubt it. She is going to steamroll him as effectively as Obama crushed Romney, especially if Texas turns blue due to amnesty like I am expecting.

I wish I could ask for the $25 dollar donation I gave months ago to get a a Rubio water bottle. Since I can’t get a refund I smashed the hell out of said bottle with a hammer & posted the pic on social media.

Called the before & after support of Rubio. He sold out & will never get my vote, nor money again.

Conservative4Ever on July 16, 2013 at 4:50 PM

Nice! Did you feel better afterwards? I hope so because that’s the best Rubio is going to do for any of us.

Obviously democrats would like nothing more than to push Rubio to the top of the GOP heap – they know, as we all do, that Rubio is absolutely toxic – they will continue to dump money into his coffer, just as they do with Christie.

They say that some 3+ million gop voters sat home in the ’12 elections, who wouldn’t vote for Romney. As we head towards the ’14 elections the gop is about to find out that wasn’t anything, and it’s all on their back with the policies “they” have decided to pursue.

Rubio is going the Romney route — straight for the Establishment money to pound and carpet-bomb primary opponents. Nothing imaginative about this preening little parvenu. The perfect little over-achiever.

rrpjr on July 16, 2013 at 4:58 PM

That’s where he’s gonna run into trouble though. How will he carpet-bomb Ted Cruz or Rand Paul if they run? Their records in the Senate are almost non-existent. And Rubio can’t nail them on that(that at least would be a substantive attack) since he’s only been a Senator since January 2011. This isn’t like Romney with Newt and Santorum. Those two had lengthy rap sheets from their days in Congress(and Newt had his personal baggage to boot), so it was easy to aim the Death Star at them.

2016 will instead likely be a tale of two parties. And I don’t mean the Dems and the GOP. We’ll have the Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party warring with the conservative/Tea Party faction. Before amnesty, Rubio could’ve been the guy to bridge that gap, but now he’s got no choice but to roll with the former.

He sold his presidential prospects for 3 million dollars and this is somehow lauded as an achievement?
Considering he sold out to the Kochs and other Big Biz types, I’m surprised it is so meager. Must be making it up in an offshore account.

Rubio’s really attractive to the pro-amnesty corporate donors — these are exactly the same big business shills that were willing to sell our country down the river in order to get low wage illegal labor, the same big business types that have in coalition with the libs caused the immigration problem that we now face. If Rubio has money and is a big contender for the nomination we are going to have a huge bitter fight, and this is going to really hurt us. And Rubio isn’t going to win, that much we can be assured of. Because if Rubio did when the 6 million that made up “the missing white vote” would next time be triple that. We better stop Rubio’s rise before it’s too late and he does great damage to the party.

I don’t care how much money Rubio gets from business interests and the GOP donors.

I don’t care how many ad dollars he spends.

Rubio, and any of the other Republicans who embrace AMNESTY, will never have my vote.

Moral of the story: Don’t take a position on an issue claiming to stand for the rule of law, and pretend to be a conservative, then take the opposite position and trample on the rule of law and conservative principles in a ploy to feed your ravening ambition and still expect conservatives to vote for you.

“Rick Perry may not be running for another term as governor, but his fundraising apparatus is humming along nicely. A source in Texas received a fundraising letter from Texans for Rick Perry on July 5 — one business day before Perry announced he won’t run for reelection — in which the governor celebrates the accomplishments of his tenure and asks for support…”

I’ve been confused how the Senate’s amnesty bill will help lower labor costs. How does the bill change the current status quo where these “people in the shadows” can be paid less than minimum wage under the table?

Maybe these little checks are coming from CA and NY. Lot of little people in those states, if size matters

Rubio is doing his face time on Univision too. That ought to generate some money orders

I cant find anyone who cares about him here, but I dont live in Mexicantown anymore. The libs don’t need him. The unemployed hate amnesty. And the base consider him a dirty snot nosed rat traitor.

The only non big shots riled enough in favor of amnesty to pass Rubio some bucks, are people who are Hillary supporters, but want to hedge their bets by getting a pro amnesty opponent, and people who personally want amnesty for somebody

The spin is getting tedious. Frankly, the GOP machine is too dumb to notice and too arrogant to care

there have several polls that have made it plain that immigration reform is supported by a majority of rank and file Republicans.

Terrye on July 16, 2013 at 5:38 PM

Completely misleading. Nothing to do with the bill Rubio advanced through the senate. NO poll reports a majority of republicans supporting amnesty or even a path to citizenship before border security. None. Not even Hispanic Americans support that.

entagor….there have several polls that have made it plain that immigration reform is supported by a majority of rank and file Republicans.

Terrye on July 16, 2013 at 5:38 PM

I’ve not heard any Republican say they were opposed to certain parts of the bill like keeping track of those here with overextended visas and speeding up the legal citizenship process. The problem with a comprehensive bill is that it always comes down to sacrificing border security for amnesty during the legislative process. I see no reason this problem can’t be handled with several smaller pieces of legislation rather than one massive bill that will invariably reward illegal entry and encourage more. We can’t keep doing it.

He might get Rino money, but he will not get grassroot support at the voting booth. Even after Romney, the establishment Republicans can’t bear to think that they need a conservative base to win the big ones. They are cutting their own throats. Dummies!

He’s getting this money from Wall Street where Goldman just clocked in record profits. As a forensic economist my question is, where are these profits coming from? Outer Space? There is no country or industry that can validate these profits so all I can surmise is Wall Streets semi trucks backing up to the printing presses. Rubio is out of order, the Republican establishment is out of order, this whole f’ing thing is out of order and as such I would hope Pug corporations can do this themselves just as they failed (I think) miserably with McCain and Romney. Hell, we may have to take out our own here because I’m done. Who are you folks going to call Koch “Amnesty” Bros and the rest of your ilk? Self centered Republican supporters, don’t forget this last statement. The left would like nothing more than for us to begin taking each other out and if this chit doesn’t change this is precisely what’s going to happen, no Sheldon? Try us f*ckers, one time. Oh and you too Rove, Kristol, Christie, Bush, Boehner, McCain, Graham, Rubio, et al. I’m done with citizen’s lawful and bona fide votes being summarily dismissed by overt idiots. There’s one thing that pisses me off more than a Democrat and that’s a hypocritical Pug.